First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all of you back home. We started the day getting hugs and greetings from all the girls on the team and receiving a special note to the three Moms from Emily who knew it would be a day we would all be missing our children. We hope each of you find joy and blessing in your families today.
I think at our last journal entry we left you at Thursday when we had finished building our house… #32 in Suubi II Children's Village. Today is Sunday so I'll catch you up to date for the past 3 days.
Friday we had a slower start to the day which was nice, considering we were up at 6:00 am for the past few days. It was great that the weather held while we built most of the house because that meant that the progress was unhindered. Speaking of weather, the temperature most days has been in the high 20's. They don't keep track of the changes in temperature like we tend to in Atlantic Canada. It's just hot! Or hotter! Quite often there is some cloud in the sky… big beautiful clouds marching along the horizon or drifting above us but they protect from the hot sun when they are around. I'm pretty sure there were some days when the temp went over 30 and today a sign we saw indicated 36 degrees but there is a lovely breeze and the sky is absolutely clear of cloud. After the sign we heard after that that it was set up incorrectly so that the temperature actually reflects the temperature of the sign, not the air. There are a lot of inconsistencies like that in Kampala.
On Friday morning we went back to downtown Kampala to The Bulrushes, the baby house. As you can imagine, the girls were very pumped to do this… the guys, well, they helped in other ways. One thing they were able to do was wash toys. Can you imagine the number of toys that 80 children play with? There was a small swimming pool heaped with toys when they were finished washing. There has been a little flu bug going through the house so they were doing their best to keep it from spreading. Another thing team members rotated to do was fold laundry. OH MY GOODNESS! The laundry! Always the washers and dryers are going. Always there is a pile that would fill a playpen or a good sized crib of little clothes to fold, not to mention the things already folded that are waiting to be put away. Three girls fold and do laundry all day long. I'll let the others tell you some of the things they did but what I did was quite typical… we could choose to go with the toddlers (up to 2.5 years) and help out on that side of the building, or go in to see the newborns and preemies and help with the children up to age one year. I think we all went in to at least see the tiny ones but as most of them had feeding issues (some had been as small as 1.5 kg) we could just cuddle but not feed them. After spending some time with them I went in with the 4-7 months babies. I arrived just in time for changing…each group has a set schedule: Drink their bottle, change, cereal and/or vegetables, cleanup and nap. So, I believe I changed each of the 12 children in that little circle. One little one was HIV positive but we took special precautions. We were there for one round of the schedule but of course in a baby's life, this happens over and over. Right now there is a waiting list of volunteers who come to work full time at the Bulrushes but there is always room for a group like ours to drop by and do what we can.
Friday afternoon we went to KPC Central and were privileged to sit in on the rehearsal of a choir-in-training. That was a real blessing. They sang one song for us that we had not heard before… just beautiful. The children have all the songs learned now and the choreography is in place for most of them. The choir is led by one young couple, as you may recall from the choir's visit to PEI and then each group of 2-3 children has an "Auntie" or "Uncle" who relate specifically to them. As a sort of introduction for the children as well as a special treat for us, the children came over to introduce themselves and they came with hugs and huge smiles. They were just delightful. We visited with them for 20-30 minutes then left them to continue their rehearsal. Basically they rehearse/have classes from 9-4 each day for the week days of 5 months, then they go on tour. The work that goes into preparing the teams both physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally is incredible but it is done well and with great care for the children. It is a real time of growth for them, for sure. Also happening at the church that day was a huge youth retreat… it is called Holiday Makers if I recall correctly. School is closed now for a few more weeks and they had packed out the church… we're talking 1200 + here… how amazing to hear them sing! (I had the 4000 number wrong in the last entry, I hear… a mixup in some information) We disguised ourselves as young people (LOL) and stuck our noses in the door for a few minutes. Leading worship for the youth that day was a group of musicians and singers, among them Fiona who was with the team when they came to Long Creek. Do you remember her? She was one of the two women who sang on the platform with the choir. She was dating Brian at the time who was the uncle who stayed at our home. We got to visit with Fiona for a few minutes. She and Brian are now engaged and will be married on August 16. Weddings are a big deal here, with usually 5-7 weddings on a weekend at KPC. While we were checking out the youth conference and chatting with Fiona, Sam was working on getting some Watoto merchandise for us so a lot of great experiences were crammed into the afternoon. Of course the disguise part mentioned above is a total joke as we stand out like sore thumbs! There would be an approximate correlation to the number of white faces in and around Kampala to the number of people of color on PEI (just a guess). They even have a name for us here "Muzungu" (meaning white teacher) and you hear it chanted by children quite often as we drive or walk around.
We had a great time of worship back at the guest house on Friday night as we do most nights and are making good use of the guitars while we have them. We have also taken them out to the work site on the days that we led the worship songs. They have been much enjoyed. We'll give you an update at a later time where the guitars are going.
Saturday was a very emotional day but I'll tell you quickly as I don't want this to get to "epistle" length again as the last one did! Basically we went to the children's village called Bbira in the morning and to Suubi Children's Village in the afternoon. It was emotional because we got to visit and meet with the children in their circle of homes and take a tour of where they live and play and go to school. It is such a great environment with sports fields, a medical centre, library, multi-purpose area all part of the administration area. The villages are so neat and well cared for, the atmosphere is cheerful and healthy. Of course when we walk through we create quite a stir and the children come running. At Suubi village our team broke into smaller groups and ate with one of the families in the village. How amazing that was… they prepared a traditional meal for us and their houses were beautiful and welcoming. Part of the blessing of the day was that we got to meet Emmanuel Promise who is the sponsored child of Peter and Emily Ross (Michelle Hixson's brother) who live in New Haven. Yes, Peter and Emily, we actually got to meet him! We also were able to meet the house mother that Dean and Stacy sponsor and John and Sherry were able to go to her home with her family for the noon meal. That was so exciting for all involved! Chad and I were totally delighted that some of the children found and brought to us Bosco who lives in Bbira Village and Ivan who lives in Suubi Village. They were the boys who stayed with us in our home when the choir came to PEI. It was so cool to catch up with them and they even remembered us. Rachel, who lives at Bbira had stayed with John and Sherry and they were able to meet her as well and Dorothy got to see Stephen whom she had made a connection with so there were tears and blessings all around. These children had met so many across Canada while they were on tour but it was cool to see the recognition in their faces when we started talking to them about their visit to Long Creek.
Sunday morning we attended church at KPC North. It is currently held in a tent, a huge tent which seats hundreds of people. Perhaps about 500-600 for the service we attended. The overflow sits out in the sun or under nearby trees. They are getting ready to build in the lot next door when they have enough money. The heat didn't stop anyone from singing and dancing in worship! In the afternoon Sam and Paul took us to a local market where we could barter and purchase some souvenirs for ourselves and family… everyone had a pretty good time there and some even got some great deals.
Every evening at the guest house there is usually a lively game of Dutch Blitz, like there is right now, sometimes some singing of golden oldies after the worship time… generally just a good time to relax and have some fun together.
Tomorrow we will go to the house we built for the dedication ceremony. We also hope to have an opportunity to tour the Production Centre mentioned in an earlier message. In the afternoon we will go to another market, after that we are invited out to dinner with some of our hosts representing KPC. On Tuesday we leave to drive 8 hours to our Safari destination, Wednesday is the safari, Thursday we drive back. Friday morning we get on the plane early in the day and head for home flying for nearly 24 hours. I probably won't have much opportunity to send messages again before so the next you hear may be a short entry or it may be when you actually see us at home. We will have many, many stories to tell to go along with hundreds of photos from 9 cameras and one video camera! I know, you are overwhelmed already but we'll try to go easy on you.
We appreciate your prayers for us as we do a lot of traveling this week. And we look forward to lots of hugs and a warm welcome home.
With love from Uganda
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